Calls mount for Sihle Zikalala to be KZN premier

Durban - The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal says it is meeting this weekend to select three names of its leaders from which its National Executive Committee (NEC) will appoint premier of the province.

However, ANC Youth League in the province had made it clear that its mother body’s provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala should ascend to the position.

ANC provincial spokesperson Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said it was not automatic that provincial chairperson becomes a premier.

“A premier is a deployment of the NEC just like a chairperson of a region is not automatically a mayor of that district.

“So we must sit down as provincial leadership and send those names to the NEC to sit down, engage and decide,” said Simelane-Zulu.

When asked about the character the ANC would prefer to lead the provincial government, Simelane-Zulu declined to respond.

ANCYL provincial chairperson Kwazi Mshengu said although the ANC process should be allowed to unfold, ANCYL had within the ANC structures that it wants Zikalala to be the premier.

“Our preference is that the leader of the ANC in the province comrade Sihle Zikalala should be the premier,” said .

There had been a concern that since the dawn of democracy, the province had never had a woman premier. Mshengu said the issue of gander was not a priority.

He said warring factions that existed leading to last year’s party provincial elective conference had reconciled and unanimously agreed on Zikalala leading the provincial government.

“For us it is not really a matter of gender, but it is a matter of consolidating the hegemony of the ANC in KZN.

“Therefore if the ANC can agree with us it is better for the people of KZN and for the stability to have the leader of the ANC being the leader of government,” he said.

EFF’s national convenor of deployees in KwaZulu-Natal Marshall Dlamini said his party would prefer a premier to be a fearless person, who is an independent thinker.

“Is should be someone who prioritise the interest of the people. In KZN, black people only own 300 000 hectares of land while white people own 5 million (hectares). The rest is sitting with the family called Ingonyama Trust.

“You need a fearless leader who is going to dissolve Ingonyama Trust immediately, who going to expropriate land from white people and give it to the state,” said Dlamini.